L & D

Nursing Students General Students

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I have no clue why, but I am terrified to work labor and delivery. My school required that I do at least one semester in L&D. I wanted to mentally prepare myself. I wanted to know what your thought were about working L&D? is it scary

Specializes in OB-Gyn/Primary Care/Ambulatory Leadership.

The likelihood of you being able to do anything more than shadow (and start an IV or a foley if you're lucky) is very slim. I seriously would not worry. Most programs, the students only spend a couple shifts actually on the unit.

Specializes in ICU/community health/school nursing.

I loved L&D. I actually got to scrub in for a procedure. The L&D nurses were very caring, professional, and insistent that they were the nurse and I was the student. However, there were a lot of little things to be done. We actually got to talk a new dad out of using his family's sword to cut the cord...no joke. I asked if it was safe to autoclave this precious heirloom...

At any rate: Most of the semester is book learning with maybe one day a week in the hospital. Learn what you can. If you feel nauseous or overwhelmed, step back to the wall, slide down and sit. That goes for all your clinicals, BTW.

Specializes in Med-Surg, Geriatrics, Wound Care.

Most of L&D is "Women's Health". You'll probably do mostly postpartum, and maybe a day in a nursery (learning infant assessments), NICU (maybe) and actual L&D. When I was in school, on my L&D day, I saw 3 lady partsl births and 0 c-sections. I think I saw the "most" births, other classmates did see c-sections. Some didn't get to see any births. Being a learning student, and actually "working" are very different things.

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